Phoenix—The Grand Canyon
Wilderness Alliance, made up of more than a dozen conservation and river-running
groups representing more than 1 million people, and the Grand Canyon
Chapter of the Sierra Club today denounced a plan by f our
river industry and recreational organizations to continue crowding the
Colorado River at the expense of protecting the rare wilderness environment
of Grand Canyon National Park.

The industry group announced that large, frequent river
groups traveling primarily in polluting motorboats should continue and
river use should continue beyond what is allowed currently by the National
Park Service. They also contend that the park should increase the number
of visitors along the river during the environmentally sensitive early
spring and winter months, a time normally reserved for wildlife and
ecological restoration. The four groups are led by the Grand Canyon
River Outfitters Association.

“These groups claim a 'historic breakthrough,' but
their proposal only makes worse the current destructive pattern of wildlife
disruption, vegetation trampling, and a crowding in what is supposed
to be the National Park Service’s premier wilderness river,” says Kim
Crumbo, a 30-year veteran of the canyon and former wilderness manager
at the park.

The Grand Canyon Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club
have been working collaboratively for three years on a solution for
balancing visitor access to the river with the important obligation
the park has to protect the exceptional wilderness attributes the canyon
offers. These attributes include natural quiet and the absence of crowds
on the river. The Arizona Wilderness Coalition introduced a
resolution to the river problem formally to the Park Service last
spring, before the agency even released its draft environmental
impact statement for the Colorado River Management Plan.

“It’s clear there’s a 'Gang of 4' who just want their access at
all cost, regardless of impacts to the resource and equity among river
users,” says Tom Martin, co-director of the Boulder, Colorado-based
River Runners for Wilderness.

Instead of trying to crowd as many visitors on the river as possible
using loopholes in the park’s Management Plan, the Grand Canyon Wilderness
Alliance and the Sierra Club has asked the Park Service to protect
the wilderness character of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon by providing
levels of recreational use consistent with a wilderness experience and
the fragile canyon resources.

“The only ‘collaborative’ approach these industry groups have taken
is to collectively put their self-interests before protecting our
national treasures,” says Don Hoffman, Executive Director of the Arizona
Wilderness Coalition.

The Alliance recommends the phase out the use of powerboats on the
proposed wilderness river. Powerboats seriously impact the wilderness
experience and Park Service policy requires the agency to remove this
“non-conforming” use. Non-motorized craft (oar-powered craft, dories,
and paddleboats) easily provide a safe, enjoyable wilderness experience
for all river runners.

Conservationists also propose to reduce group size to less than 20
people, a level consistent with a wilderness experience and preferred
by most river runners. This is important because larger groups need
more space for activities. When large groups camp at ever-diminishing
beaches, they are forced to spread out into environmentally sensitive
areas.

According to the Park Service, 96% of 25 camp sites monitored in the
spring of 2003 had 10 trails per campsite, and one site had 88 trails.
One trail is considered the limit to protect the shoreline areas of
the canyon. Current impacts are severe enough to require native plant
re-vegetation at nearly half of the river camp sites, according to NPS's
draft Colorado River Management Plan.

“The Grand Canyon needs to be protected for generations to come and
the Park Service has identified key problems such as trampled vegetation
and noisy overcrowding at many sites along the river,” says Roxane George,
speaking for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter. “The outfitters’
plan is more of the same, but the Grand Canyon needs restoration and
protection as its beaches grow smaller and wilderness disappears.”

The Grand Canyon Wilderness
Alliance and the Sierra Club also strongly recommends reducing
the number of encounters between boats to a level that is compatible
with a wilderness experience. The Park Service’s own research shows
the majority of river users prefer less than three encounters with other
groups each day.

Rather than locking in commercial use, the wilderness groups recommend
that the Park Service should provide commercial services only when they
are demonstrated as necessary and appropriate and the minimum required
for providing recreational rafting opportunities consistent with the
purposes of wilderness. Only then should the agency establish freely
adjustable and equitable use allocation between commercial and non-commercial
river runners.

“Nothing more than the future of the Grand Canyon is at
stake here,” says Jo Johnson, Co-Director of River Runners for Wilderness.
“This ‘breakthrough’ is wiping out a chance for change for the
river and further entrenches the status quo of crowds, noise, and ecological
destruction taking place in the canyon.”